Albert Pujols Rumors: Monday

Albert Pujols has given the Cardinals a deadline. If the sides don't agree to an extension by Wednesday, the powerful first baseman will hit free agency after the season. That possibility appears increasingly likely these days; Pujols turned down an extension from the Cardinals about two weeks ago and his agent has since told other teams that the Cardinals have "no chance" of locking Pujols up. Here's the latest, with the most recent updates up top:

One competing baseball executive believes that the Cubs will offer Pujols the Alex Rodriguez deal, meaning $27.5MM per year over ten years, tweets Jon Heyman of SI.

Cardinals GM John Mozeliak told Goold that he'd "like to have a term sheet" completed by Wednesday's deadline (Twitter link). Presumably that means the Cardinals would be happy to agree to terms with Pujols, even if the contractual language gets finalized later.

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the precise time of the deadline (on Twitter). The Cardinals asked to shift the deadline to 12pm EDT on Wednesday so as not to interfere with Stan Musial, who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House tomorrow. Pujols agreed to the new deadline.